The Glittering Cage

Rift's short life should have ended at the bottom of a cold Cumbrian lake. Trapped in the glittering cage of autism without the wit or will to save himself as he drowns, he is swept up in the jaws of a mighty maaladon and carried down the Longways to the pure world of Edria.

The traumatic journey splits his already fragile mind. The only cure is brutal: all memories of his isolated childhood are cut out and discarded, and with them, the last desperate hope of Edria's dying god Setti.

Ten years on, Rift is released into the world by his healers, their sad litany that god is dead ringing in his ears. He does not believe it. Edria is vibrant with the wonders of Setti's touch: the immense maaladons who weave the Longways between worlds, the savage parators and impossibly swift hiydn of the vast heartlands, the elegant sword dances of the Elenan, and the almost magical stone works of the Lapilli.

A Pale Child is intent on destroying it all, and the world is powerless in the face of its manipulated hate. Only Rift, not constrained by purity can resist, for the Pale Child has grown from his own discarded memories, made corporeal by Edria's innate lust for life.

Edria and its god are trying to make Rift something he refuses to be, but the only alternative is to sacrifice himself, and step into a glittering cage once again.